Many owners and drivers of off-road vehicles such as Jeep® brand vehicles choose to enhance their stock vehicles with aftermarket accessories. Such accessories might include, for example, driving lights, snorkels, winches, wheels, suspensions, special ruggedized tires, and the like. While some off-road accessories are decorative, most serve the purpose of enhancing the resiliency and survivability of the vehicle when it is driven on very demanding and often punishing off-road terrain.
One accessory often added to an off-road vehicle is protective guards that partially cover headlights, tail lights, and other lights with bulbs or lenses subject to being broken by flying debris or impact. Headlights can be particularly vulnerable since on most off-road vehicles, the headlights are relatively large and positioned on the front of the vehicle where they are particularly vulnerable to impact and breakage. A broken or non-functioning headlight can be unsafe, particularly in remote locations at night when it is important for a driver to see the path ahead and be seen by other off-roaders nearby.
Numerous protective guards have been developed that at least partially cover the headlights of off-road vehicles. Most such guards include some type of cage that covers the headlight to deflect debris that might otherwise shatter the headlight. For example, a guard may have a circular base that mounts around a headlight and two or more bars that span the base and overlie the headlight. Some headlight guards are grills with crisscrossing bars that cover the headlight or screens having a rugged mesh that covers the headlight. Prior art headlight guards mount to a vehicle in only one orientation; that is, with their bars or mesh extending horizontally and/or vertically. For a variety of reasons including aesthetics, owners of off-road vehicles may wish to change the orientation of the bars and/or mesh covering their vehicle's headlights. This is not possible with prior art guards.
A need exists for a headlight guard for off-road vehicles that can be installed with the protective bars and/or mesh oriented in a desired direction other than vertically or horizontally. A further need exists for a headlight guard for off-road vehicles that allows for selective orientation or changes in orientation of the cage by a vehicle owner once the guard is mounted to a vehicle. It is to the provision of a selectively orientable headlight guard that meets these and other needs that the present invention is primarily directed.